What you have to do is buy some mics and try them out for yourself. Don't listen to people who want to tell you which dynamic mic is better or worse. It's complete bullshit. An sm57 could sound amazing on one cab, and shit on another, or one amp vs. another, or guitar, or player, or room, engineer, sound board, compressor, eq, blah blah blah. Even a few degrees tilt to one side, and a half an inch forward or away could make or break the sound of a microphone for a specific application. It's all how you use the mic, what you set it up with, how you play, and the rest of your signal chain.
All of those mics (pr30, e906, sm57, sm7b...etc) mentioned in the post could potentially sound amazing with a VH4, or tons of other amps. I own all of those mics and I can tell you from experience. I've owned tons of different amps, guitars, cabs, I own an analog vintage Trident console, and a full digital Pro Tools rig. How a dynamic mic sounds on an amp has so many factors in play. Seriously, just buy a mic and try it at every angle, every distance...etc. Trial and error. If you listen to everybody on a forum about this, you're head is going to be spinning with contradicting opinions, tastes and ears, and especially false claims and completely nonsensical statements, LIKE THE FOLLOWING.
AND LET ME PREFACE THIS WITH SAYING THAT I'M NOT TRYING TO PICK ON THIS GUY OR START AN ARGUMENT
Kev":3464nmws said:
sm 57 doesn't work that well with the herb. even the sm 58 does a better job with the herb.
the e906 directly facing the loudspeaker works really nice!
audio technica also has nice stuff (the ae 2500 is great, but 600euros...)
This is nonsense for one main reason. The 57 and 58 are essentially identical mics, save for a SLIGHT presence difference that is created by different grills. The 57 has the smaller grill, which allows you to put it closer to a sound source and get more bass response. The 58 has the "ball" and windscreen, creating a different presence peak at higher frequencies. If you don't believe me, go read it straight from the Shure website, or ask one of their engineers on another thread or buy calling the HQ.
The only reason these two mics should sound SIGNIFICANTLY different is because of mic placement. There really is no reason that a 58 should sound different on a cab. You can essentially get all the tones out of a 57 that you can with the 58, plus you can then put it closer and get more bass response, where you can't with the 58, unless you unscrew the top of the ball, and you could probably get almost identical sounds.
Also, the statement about the e906 sounding awesome directly facing the speaker...ok, so is it also centered in the speaker, or to the left or right, is it right up on the grill, or back a half an inch, or an inch? All of these things could cause the mic to go from sounding like radio gold, to complete crap, and it causes a lot of arguments and confusion among people who forget that they might have tried the mics in different applications, distances, rooms, techniques, with different guitars or cabs and speakers....etc the list goes on.
Sorry for rambling, but I just can't stress it enough. Most dynamic mics are pretty cheap; even the good ones, so try it for yourself. You might completely love what the other guy completely hates.
